M.A.I.L. (Maille Artisans International League) is an international community of artisans and volunteers dedicated to the advancement of the chainmaille artform. We aim to encourage the sharing and spreading of information, archiving as many techniques and weaves as possible.

I started working on maille armor in 1993 and made several shirts, coifs, chausses, etc. A few years later I was given close to a hundred pounds of 0.035" and 0.045" stainless welding wire (along with a lot of other wire too, and almost all of it has been used now) and began playing around with jewelry and maille clothing designs. Sometime around the turn of the century I started talking to Kim Chatfield (sakredchao) and we became some of the early pioneers of maille as a sculptural medium. Today I do not maille nearly as much as I use to, but still make the occasional bit of armor and clothing, some jewelry, and sculpture. Most of my maillework over the last few years focuses on experimenting with weaving maille that incorporates non-standard elements such as parts from bicycle and chainsaw chains, washers, and lock washers.

Gallery Submissions

Copper spider, made from several gauges and ring sizes. mostly copper. Uses variations of the Japanese 4 in 1 "cube" weave and Japanese 6 in 1 and 5 in 1. The legs are four 16ga 1/16"ID copper springs...

Dragonfly, about 3" long from head to tail w/ wingspan of about 5". Made from several sizes of .035" stainless rings. Weaves used were variations of HP3-1, Euro6-1, and a variation of Jap Cube.

underside of dragonfly. legs are .035" ID coils of .035" diameter stainless with the mandrel left in to help them hold the shape. Wings are also built on a .035" stainless frame.

Coin Pendant. coin is from Empire Cherifien, now known as Morocco if I recal correctly. maille border is HP3-1

suit of maille, or what I had done on it when I had it. made from stainless and aluminum, with some brass trim. Aluminum was used on the lower arms and lower legs to reduce the pendulum effect of swin...

my third or so attempt at maille chausses. This was the attempt that worked, and worked very well. maille is 16ga 1/4"ID, stainless above the knee and aluminum below. they were quite comfortable and m...

maille muffler padded w/ quilted material. laces at the wrist and has a slit in the leather palm so the hand can be removed (for doing the laces or buckling a helmet strap) without removing the mitten...

wooden egg wrapped in euro and HP 4-1

Japanese based weave made out of the larger links from a roller chain

3 types of maille-able things from a roller chain after it is broken down into it's various parts. 2 sizes of "8" shaped plates/rings, and a squarish ring that is sometimes solid. All are very tough s...

Maille Lizard - The undersides of the lizard are made out of scraps of Euro 4-1 that I had laying around. It's belly is made of 16ga Inconel (625) rings with an ID of about 5/16". The underside o...

The back and legs are made of Japanese 4-1 constructed of varying sizes of lock washers (from about 1/4" to 1/8" ID - I do not know the actual sizes) and flat washers (ranging in sizes from ...

Alternate view. The belly of the lizard is Euro 4-1 made into a tapering tube. The tube is partially filled with small rivet-pin-things that used to hold together sections of bicycle chain. There is a...

I made this as a final project for a sculpture class. I originally wanted it to be all found hardware - no standard maille rings, but time ran short and I ended up just tossing a lot of it together. I...

Here is a Mobius Ball that is actually shaped like a ball. It is made out of 20 gauge copper sheet. Each ring is about 5/16" wide with a diameter of around 1.75". The Copper used was origina...

Here are a couple of dodecagons that use roller chain bearings in their construction. The one on the left used bearings from chain that came off my broken mountain bike, and the other rings are 7/32&q...

Here is a sample of one of many varieties of open sheet weaves using roller chain components linked together with round wire maille rings. Uses parts from a 1/8" wide by 1/2" pitch roller ch...

.035" Stainless steel and enameled copper. Uses mostly 1/8" ID rings, except for 1/16" ID in the head and fingers. The kilt is European 4 in 1, body and head are Japanese 4 in 1 Cube (...

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